Look at me

We have been working with Jaden on eye contact. Whenever she wants something, she whines and pulls us to the thing she wants. She doesn't look into our faces. So Kirsty showed us different ways to get eye contact. If Jaden wants a cup we fill it and then hold it up close to our eyes to encourage her to look into them to get what she wants. That doesn't always work, though. She might still stand there fussing, staring at the cup. So we put it behind our head. That works better. As soon as she looks into our eyes, we get all excited and immediately give her what she has been waiting for as a reward. Jaden has been getting better and better about looking into our eyes when she wants something. But something new happened, starting last night. I was on the floor with her, playing with one of her favorite toys. It has plastic balls that you drop into the top and it goes down a maze thing to the bottom. But Jaden likes the ball to go round and round and round at the top first--the more times it goes around the better--before dropping in the hole. The problem was that she couldn't do it without help. So it was a prime teaching tool. She would hand (shove) the balls to us constantly--and I would hold it up to my eyes, then behind my head, then she would usually look into my eyes. The hardest part is waiting for her to look because she doesn't get the item she wants if she doesn't look. So last night instead of being quiet like I am supposed to while waiting for her to look into my eyes, I said, "look at me"....and she did! I couldn't believe she had followed a command. I thought it was coincidence, since she have never followed a command until now. So I waited a few times and just held the ball up. I said "look at me" and she did!
And she did today, too, for several different things. Praise the Lord!
One of the hardest parts of teaching a child with autism is that they don't retain what you teach them. My prayer for tonight is that Jaden will retain 'look at me' forever.